Something called Anzac Day

[3dogs]

Tomorrow, Saturday 25th April We observe Anzac Day in Australia. At its core is a really tiny beach on the Turkish coast where in the First World War thousands of Australian and New Zealand youngsters lost a fight with "Johnny Turk." Where our odd Island Nation finally severed it total thraldom to Mother England, where we discovered that we were then leaner, meaner and a lot smarter than all comers when the chips were down and there was nowhere to walk away to only the sea at our backs.

What has this to do with a printer forum?

I was not there, I have no family memorabilia to connect me, so I can only be connected to that pivotal part of my Countrys' History via printed media, photographs, prints of old letters and Memorials.
It is a hundred years on and the photographs remain whilst the people who are in them and those that made the photographs have passed on. I am reminded of the value of print by this as it is easy to be absorbed in the 'now' of the seemingly trivial images we make today, and lose sight of their importance later on as Historical markers, for Nations, Regions, Countries, Towns, and their peoples.

If no one had been able to capture and print those images we would have no visual record of what those young folk were made of, what they looked like and often how they felt.
One of our Supermarket Chains just got in hot water for using the portrait of a young soldier and linking it commercially to their in store Marketing pitch.
The young mans' image is THE most powerful portrait I have ever seen. It brought home to me just what we lost on those barren slopes in far off Turkey. This harsh inhospitable Land ( Australia) forged a generation that was a one off, never to be repeated or created again.......ever
They were born into hardship, raised on survival and became fodder, squandered in a tiff between the Royal families of Europe.
These kids, men and women of many nationalities, and also our own Aboriginals were toughened like no others can ever be again, living on and off the land, itinerants mostly getting around on horseback, or on foot. From offices, shops, farms and the true outback they shared the ability to sleep under the stars, ride anything that moved, endure any privation.....to be able to see and do things that no person should have to and still to 'pull it down and put it in its place and endure' with but a wry comment.

It was self a stoic sufficiency that set them apart and enabled them to endure and prevail, and it was that self belief that confounded and finally severed us from Europe....and marks us even to today, such was their strength of character and their formidable resolve. It bears thinking on that despite that pedigree too many returned forever damaged and broken of spirit and body.......was it not Hell on Earth that they lived and saw?

We would have no idea what, why, who or how but for those old B&W prints........

I am in hopes that the Inks we use today do last as long so others as yet unborn get to see what has been via print as I and many others have of those savage times a hundred years ago.

Lest we Forget

 

[The Hat]

Commemorations will be going on all this weekend, this time in colour..

http://www.theguardian.com/news/201...ipoli-honouring-bravery-amid-bloody-slaughter

 

[Emulator]

Thank you both for increasing our understanding of this appalling series of events.

 

[fotofreek]

Thanks to 3dogs and The Hat for bringing to our attention the commemoration of the slaughter at Gallipoli. I was not aware of this disaster until seeing the movie, Gallipoli, in 1981. 3dogs post and the Guardian article provided more information to expand my knowledge of this horrible event.

It is a hundred years on and the photographs remain whilst the people who are in them and those that made the photographs have passed on. I am reminded of the value of print by this as it is easy to be absorbed in the 'now' of the seemingly trivial images we make today, and lose sight of their importance later on as Historical markers, for Nations, Regions, Countries, Towns, and their peoples.

Like 3dogs, I am dismayed that the images people take today are, more often than not, temporary and never printed. I treasure my family pictures that date back four or more generations. There are photographic exhibits in museums that are what appeared to be ordinary street scenes when the pictures were taken, some more than a century ago, that are now treasures that expand our knowledge of the past. Photos of the American civil war or the photos taken as our country expanded to the west undoubtedly appeared "ordinary" at the time but are now treasured as lessons in history.

Pictures taken on the battlefield of wars are the best anti-war lessons we can have when considering the choices to solve human conflict!

 

[The Hat]

And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda.

Shed a tear for on this very day 100 years ago..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFCekeoSTwg

 

[3dogs]

Thank you @The Hat for posting that link. I know the Eric Bogle version best.....But this is a very special rendition, it eclipses any I have seen or heard, he speaks the Spirit of the words so truly that today it is just not possible to watch and listen without being very moved - "Thank You," my friend very much appreciated.



Added

On the same link Eric Bogle - The Green Fields of France.......

 

[fotofreek]

I had never heard the full version of Waltzing Matilda, nor had I heard The Green Fields of France. Very stirring anti-war songs and sung by the fantastic Liam Clancy whom I had not heard before either. In the US there are several singers who have done anti-war songs that are memorable - Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan are two that come to mind.

I don't mean to take away from the important and solemn observance of Anzac day, but for anyone who has not seen the 1930 American movie, "All quiet on the western front", it was adapted from the 1929 book of the same name by a German author who wrote about the horrors of war from the perspective of a German boy in WWI. The first talking anti-war film, it won an academy award. Although we are conditioned to be less sympathetic to the enemy, this movie demonstrates that war's inhumanity and insanity affects all parties to the conflict. Rather than copy the story line to this post, if you are interested you can google the name of the movie for more information. The story line in the following link is a short synopsis for a quick understanding of what it portrays. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020629/

 

[3dogs]

@fotofreek its a classic all around the World.
I was fortunate in my last year at school to have had a returned soldier as a teacher of English Literature. He introduced a largely disinterested group of students to Poetry. He started with the War poets, just three poems shaped my learning, and life thereafter..
Strange meeting http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/176833 was the first. Then he gave us The Destined Hour by F. L. Lucas. the third escapes me now but it has as its subject those that sat "in stately enclave" and explored the disconnect between the drivers if society and its population.
In Australia we (Australians & New Zealanders) we will follow in the footateps of our service men and of late woman from early 2014, and will continue to 2017...such was the impact of our loss. We now have a Blue Poppy to comemorate the millions of animals killed, We mourn the loss of the Waler horse that were used by our Light Horse, not Cavalry, but mounted infantry. Only one horse was ever allowed to return to Australia. The troops were ordered to shoot their mounts before they left Egypt for many of them it was their most bitter act of the entire War - We honour the Waler Horse as you honour your vertans. "BILL THE BASTARD" is our most famous and the subject of a book. He and a mare were spirted away in a supply ship and ended their days on the land behind Gallipoli A Country of as many people as the USA can not begin to understand how small we were back then, where day to day survival was the glue of the community of both tiny Nations. We were all 'known' to each other, even if we had never met. Some element of each family or group was KNOWN. Belatedly we have become aware of the Nurses who like the Vietnam Vets were ignored and excluded by our RSL (Returned Soldiers League) till someone finally shon a light on their Leadership and forced change through.
The 25th is the Anniversary Day we observe that honours (now, finally) all Vetrans.

Thankfully we no longer glorify War by the observance each year, even the churches "Christians" have been forced to alter their bloody rhetoric to seek atonement for the folly of War.